Fun with Showtime!

Er, I'm dumping this in here. It's mostly about game play, as, for me and other US residents, it's no longer news, since the game is out.

I plopped down a Sim from my bin, Cole Park. I used him as a tester Sim before in world building. He was always a blast at lot testing. With the childish trait, he'd gravitate to toy chests and acquire a rocket or bunny or something. Every time I'd leave him alone for a tad, he'd be plunked down blasting a bunny off into space when I got back. Sigh. Blasted that bunny right into the cold blackness of the space in my heart, he did.

Any who, I placed him in an attractive starter. I think there are six starters in Starlight Shores, and four of them are quite nice. The other two are mobile homes and really not exciting at all.

Overall, Starlight Shores looks pretty good. Some of the rabbit holes are amazing, like the grocery store, an actual chain-like store, instead of the mom-and-pop shops we've had before. [No longer tethered to a downtown/Main Street setting, it really opens up a lot of opportunities for world building.] The school is nice as well--a more post-war modern design, somewhat high school-y. [SV, RV,and BP all seemed very elementary school to me, TB was quaint if not non-descript, and AP also had a high school-y feel, but with a pre-war design.] Also, the new school is only a school, and not a combo of school/stadium. The criminal rabbit hole is wonderful. It is once again in an industrial type building, BUT not rundown/abandoned looking, just industrial. I quite like the business/restaurant. It would look good in any more modern city, and I hate the crescent shaped one [and the base-game one] from BP, so a welcomed change. The bookstore/spa is okay. It has Art Deco detailing that a lot of SS rabbit holes have, like the government building, mausoleum [super swanky], and criminal. The hospital/science center is crap. The coffeehouse [new diner?] is really neat, there's a little bakery in my real life town that looks quite like it!

Almost all the EA built homes and buildings fall into one of three styles: boxy-white modern, Spanish-y with red tile roofing, or a Californian Craftsman bungalow-y style. I'm actually impressed with some of the EA houses, [which I usually hate with fiery passion]. A couple of the boxy-white modern homes are especially nice--leaps and bounds above the ones in BP. There are many new doors, arches, and windows, mostly for the Spanish styles. There is a great three-tile picture window, perfect for suburbia, with a matching single-tile one that takes up the full width and can be paired or tripled nicely. Looking through the catalog, there are some modern doors and arches, but I haven't seen them used in game--probably at that club I haven't been to yet. [Haven't been to the art gallery yet either.]

I was surprised to see a chapel-like building on the graveyard lot!

There are a couple of building shells that are gig venues. They work like the LN skyscrapers. I like the taller one with the glass cylindrical part, but the other one not so much--not as versatile.

The two big venues, one being a stadium rabbit hole as well, are shells as well. The lots are locked. So to see them you have to cheat. [testingcheatsenabled true--buydebug on--enablelotlocking true] I haven't played enough to get inside them the normal way, so I'm not exactly sure how they work, but I assume you just kinda teleport inside. These two shells and the pre-order bonus one, are not in the catalog as far as I can see. But they take up most of the lot, so transferring the lot and editing it will probably work if you want them in a custom town. [However, when doing this with LN lots, there were weird naming issues. I hope that doesn't happen again.]

Proprietors are a new NPC. [I dunno, maybe you can become on if you buy a venue.] They are the dudes you see about an audition for a gig at their venues. On each venue lot, there is a little square called proprietorPlacement_ftp. Not sure the point of it yet, but I didn't see it in the debug section, and can only be moved with moveobjects on. There are show floor thingies that you can put either benches or tables with chairs on, so Sims can enjoy a show while seated. Kinda cool. The performance stages themselves are 8x7 mats that you can place on the floor or stage. [Maybe foundation? Dunno yet.] The stages have slots for props. [Some of the props are way cool, and have potential uses outside being a prop.] There are a variety of surrounds for the stages.

I didn't take many pictures, but I started Cole on the acrobat path. You can start the professions through a computer or newspaper. I did notice that in the funny interaction menu with other sims, Cole was able to mime conversation with him self for others. It was quite funny, but the guy I did it for was not impressed. So far, there is a lot of humor in Showtime. I don't think the Sims has made me laugh this much in a long time. The karaoke [Cole had random duet with Wang Bo, a Chinese tourist!], golfing square, and just the acrobat stuffs has been really enjoyable.

Cole has his first performance at the park venue. There were four people, but they enjoyed it. I was all in a tizzy before the show trying to work out a costume and make-up. ["It's time to put on make-up! It's time to dress up right!"] I went for a spooky-clowny-gypsy-oh-heck-I-dunno look for the stage props.Hrm, I wonder if I can put some rugs down?

Anywho, I've babbled terribly and not provided many pictures. But maybe some info. Please feel free to drop in photos and experiences from your first playing of Showtime! Let's all learn about the new stuffs in it together!

RheassiMember

Posts : 1168Join date : 2012-02-21Age : 46Location : Ohio, USA

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:49 pm

Yay! Thank you for all the information! I will not have Showtime for a couple of weeks so excited to see what others are doing.. Thank you for sharing. Can not wait to see more!

Yeah, the first impressions of Showtime on me are very good. I think I'm going to really enjoy it a lot. It is very, very much like Ambitions in many ways. There's the Genie, which is like a Simbot, insomuch that you can get it through Lifetime Points or game play. New professions to explore, but they seems they are a little less hands-on, which is good. Some of the Ambitions professions just took way too much focus. But professions are fun in general, as compared to the sometimes dreadful routines of rabbit hole jobs. A welcomed break often times! Ambitions has some great build/buy items, possibly my most favorite, but Showtime has some that I'm itchin' to start building with. [Build/buy items are such a matter of taste, though. I think those in Pets are great, but I'm not very much of a rural/outdoors-y type guy. Plus horses scare me in real life.] Like Ambitions, I don't think there's anything in it that is quite game-changing. Pets and LN affected the game way more, in ways that you couldn't really ignore the things they added. [And to finish my expansion thoughts, WA changes the whole genre of the game when you go adventuring [so cool!], and Generations was just fluff [so lame!].] I would say Showtime is Ambitions II.

I don't think I'll play in Starlight Shores long, which is really what happened for me with Ambitions too. Poor Twinbrook was under-loved. I'll move back to slowly world building and playing/testing my own worlds. EQ already mentioned the limited expanding of Starlight Shores, which is so true. I don't think it prompted me to put down the movie back-lot, which I should look into.

Oh, a least the game icon is something different, a pretty primary blue, unlike Pets, Town Life, High-End Loft, and Outdoor Living which are painfully similar to each other.

GuestGuest

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:57 pm

Playing around with some of the build stuff. The show floors for benches [4x2]and tables [3x3] I mentioned in the first post, mostly. I wanted to make a little note, as they are a bit finicky. The show floors are in debug. The bench one only works with the debug bench for it or dining/desk chairs. Can't use park benches, arm chairs, sofas, or even sectional pieces. The table show floor works with any square or round four-seat table and any dining/desk chair. However, you must assemble the table and chairs first and then place them on the floor show. If you put the table on first, you won't be able to add the chairs. if you take a chair off, you won't be able to add it back with dragging. [Undo will work.] The furniture attaches the the show floor [which is invisible, at least outside where I'm testing], much like how chairs attach to tables or desks. The LN bar stool table and bar stools do not work with the table show floor.

My example photo is a little pointless as you don't see the actual show floors. But hey, those are the benches for the floor and a new chair.

daisyleeMember

Posts : 5268Join date : 2012-02-21Location : I am still darn cute and in my bath now as you can see!

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:34 am

Thank you so very much for all this great information and your thoughts on all of this. I have had time to nap and think about all of this more, and I think I may go ahead and get into SS in CAW and see if I can alter it to the point that I might want to play it for a while. I think I placed the movie studio by the shoe factory as the only place the RH would fit. I do not like the hospital/science one either and will use another one. I also did not expect the chapel at the graveyard. Forest Lawn, or whatever it is called in RL must have one.

Overall, I think SS has a nice So. CA feel to it, so I think they did that well.

I tried to look at one of the large venues too. It looks like they probably are like base camps and need to be unlocked before we access in build and buy?

Love the pic!

GramcrackersMember

Posts : 4756Join date : 2012-02-21Age : 74Location : USA

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:06 am

I appreciate your evaulation, cutsocks. Sounds like there is lots to like about the new EP.

GuestGuest

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:48 am

Thanks for posting the great info. I had a little time to play last night and am now itching for more.

daisyleeMember

Posts : 5268Join date : 2012-02-21Location : I am still darn cute and in my bath now as you can see!

Subject: Re: Fun with Showtime! Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:06 am

Had to come back and read your advice again! I am making a karaoke and show lounge in one of the shells. Could not place the chairs with the table. Now I know why and will need to try again.

I am putting things in my Xterra and they look good in the modern hood. Placed the mausoleum to replace the one I had.